Occupy Gets a PAC! But Is the Founder 1% Short of a General Assembly?

John Paul Thornton of Decatur, AL, has filed an application for a PAC designed to tap into the Occupy Movement. Thornton,according to the local CBS affiliate, said he was watching The Colbert Report when he came up with the idea. “This PAC is for everyone and if they want to contribute they are more than welcome. This is going to be uber-transparent down to the cent. It will be egalitarian and democratic,” explained Thornton.

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So who’s Thornton? If he’s the same fellow in this article from the Decatur Daily (same name, same age, same location) – he’s a mental health worker with serious alleged mental health troubles himself. The Thornton described by the Daily is a former member of the Alabama National Guard. Upon coming out from the National Guard, he apparently began acting erratically – so erratically that his family tried to have him involuntarily committed. A local doctor wrote a note to the court explaining, “He has become verbally aggressive, verbose, talking rapidly, changing topics quickly, and (he) describes grandiose adventures in his duties as a current member of the Alabama National Guard.”

In 2008, John Paul Thornton of Decatur, AL was sentenced to 60 days in jail for a DUI, and also allegedly violated a protection order. Thornton’s father wrote a note to the police chief telling him he was afraid his son might hurt somebody; the jail put him on suicide watch. The family believed he wasn’t getting the proper mental health treatment. Thornton’s mother promptly nailed a cross to the top of the fence in backyard and sat on a ladder next to it to protest his lack of mental health treatment.

This is the material from which Occupy Wall Street is made, so it appears as though the Occupy PAC has a perfectly appropriate founder.